Anime Tattoos

Anime Tattoos combine Animation and Body Art
Anime characters are a popular subject for fan art. Thousands of drawings, paintings and digital art works celebrate famous anime characters such as Naruto, Vegeta and Goku. Devoted anime fans have taken to tattooing images of their favorite anime characters on their skin in a permanent body art homage to the characters. Each character has a distinct personality and history, creating iconic personalities that are expressed through animations and images of the characters.

Japan first started exploring animation in the decade of 1910 – 1920. By the 1960s, a distinctly Japanese animation style began to develop. By the 1980s, this style was known as “anime” and it became popular with viewers all over the world. The majority of anime films and series are voiced in Japanese and shown in other countries with subtitles. Die hard anime fans from the West claim that subtitled anime films are far more enjoyable than versions that have been dubbed into English. The subtitles and Japanese language all add to the viewing experience for anime fans in the West.

Tattoos of Anime Characters
The style of anime is distinctive. In moments of action or high drama, the character’s facial expression will be exaggerated or made into an abstract portrayal of the emotion being expressed by the character. To create tension in a scene, animators will often pose the characters in a stand-off, with little movement in the scene. These techniques are not only used to create drama in the animation – it is faster and more economical for animators to use these techniques than to animate a scene that is filled with movement. Even lip-synching is often thrown over for the more efficient and cheaper techniques of simply opening and closing the character’s mouths.

The most popular anime series are Naruto Shippuden, Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist and Code Geass. All of these series have characters that have been celebrated in tattoo art. Anime fans will choose a character to tattoo based on the personality and history of the character. Sometimes a tattoo of an anime character is chosen as a symbol of that character’s attributes such as bravery, wisdom or passion. Some anime tattoos are chosen because the anime series has been a constant in that person’s life, helping them to heal from illness or simply being a staple part of their media diet.